How tall was the first skyscraper and where was it built?
The Home Insurance Building in Chicago is usually credited as being the first skyscraper. It was built in 1884 and rose to 138 feet (42 meters). What made skyscrapers possible is the wider use of structural steel to create frames, and the concurrent invention of the elevator (climbing all of those stairs made tall buildings impractical before that). Why build them? The answer is the cost of real estate in cities. In order to get increased floor space before the advent of skyscrapers one had to build out horizontally. This requires more property and is prohibitively expensive. But with a skyscraper, you need not build out — you build “up” instead. It maximizes the land usage, and offers the ability to increase floor space without buying more property. Okay?
